Reading

  At Cromer Road we place a strong emphasis on encouraging reading for pleasure within children,            helping them to become confident and skilled readers. We believe that becoming a fluent reader is        crucial because it opens up a world of knowledge, curiosity, and creativity. 

We start teaching children how to read by helping them understand and recognise printed words right from Reception. Teaching phonics early on is important because it builds a strong base, needed for successful reading and writing. 

We follow the Department for Education approved Phonics programme called Supersonic Phonic Friends, which teaches children how to read by breaking down words into sounds and blending them together. This helps them connect the spoken sounds (phonemes) with how they look in written form (graphemes). In Reception, children have daily phonics lessons and in Year 1 and Year 2, the children have daily phonics lessons and Guided Reading lessons. We want all children to read confidently, so we provide extra reading support groups if needed, even in Years 3-6. Cromer Road aims to equip children with the skills they need to decode words from an early age, enabling them to develop confidence and fluency in reading.

  As children become more confident with phonics, we switch from Guided Reading and phonics                lessons in KS1 to whole-class reading lessons in Years 3 to 6. A mixture of teachers reading aloud to        the class and pupils reading to each other is used to share the text which then feeds into discussion and follow on comprehension questions. The children practise comprehension skills linked to 6 main areas:                     

• vocabulary
• inference
• prediction                                                                                                                               
• explanation
• retrieval
• summarising 

Across the school, we teach reading using a variety of reading schemes, ‘book bands’ and carefully chosen, high-quality, whole-class texts for English lessons that include picture books, novels, non-fiction and poetry. This ensures every child at Cromer Road has access to a wealth of reading material that motivates them to read and encourages reading for pleasure. The core texts that we use for English lessons cover a range of diverse themes including stories from different cultures; books covering themes such as being a refugee, bullying and identity. Non fiction books cover many topical themes such as the environment and significant women in history. 

  Learning to read isn't just about decoding words; it is also about understanding what you read. At            Cromer Road we ensure all children have the opportunity to listen to stories being read aloud, with        daily story time sessions. Our aim is to enrich children’s experience and understanding of the world, by fostering a culture within Cromer Road which celebrates the love of reading and a range of authors.